What separates us from them…
Stolen (?) from The Burn Pit because I think everyone should see this.
Meet Mohammed
Every once in a while some jackass person will go off and apologize to another country over something that America is alleged to have perpetrated. The one that made me the maddest was “War-Resister” Matthis Chiroux who apologized to an Afghan Peace Activist saying:
[I]n 2005, for a brief time, I helped occupy Malalai’s country, and it was wrong. It was my mistake. I should not have been there. I should not have been supporting this oppression of her people. Today I want to look Malalai in the eye, and I want to tell you, Malalai, how sorry I am for the violence that my Army has done to your people, to your country. I want to apologize to you for the role that I played in it. I was wrong, and I will show you that my country and the rest of the world can come to a place where they can admit wrong, apologize, and offer some sort of reconciliation.
What really made this apology so asinine is that Matthis spent a grand total of 6 days in Afghanistan, and never left Bagram Air Base. When I was in theater, I watched guys in my unit ask for things from home not for themselves, but for the children and the people of Afghanistan who needed the small things: some soap, comic books and sharpies.
I served over there with fellow Milblogger The Sniper. (His site is mildly unsafe for work.) He’s my friend, he’s my comrade in arms, and he made a picture that sums up EVERYTHING that is wrong with folks like Matthis who deign to apologize on our behalf. They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words, well, this is the Encyclopedia Britanica of pictures.
It is something I think a lot about. Putting aside the moral and legal validity of the conflicts we find ourselves in, what separates us from them?
I’ll answer that, THIS is what does:
LANSING, Mich. -A 13-year-old Iraqi boy brought to Michigan a year ago by a National Guardsman so he could get plastic surgery to repair scars from a house fire no longer is shy about pulling off his beloved Detroit Tigers baseball cap.
Black, glossy hair now grows where only scar tissue was before. And Mohammed’s left hand and wrist — deformed in the fire when he was 2 — now can adeptly field baseballs.
On Sunday, Mohammed will head back to Iraq with Army National Guard Major David Howell, who brought the shy, slender boy to mid-Michigan last April for the life-changing surgery.
I could waste your time and write up a bunch of stuff on this, but as is my custom, why write when I have a perfectly fine video to share? [Consider this a mild hankey warning.]
And so, Mohammed is going home. At first I felt sad that he was returning, since he seems so happy here. But his family is there, and that is his home. It’s men like Major David Howell who make me feel so humble that I was granted the honor of serving in your United States Army.
I pray that the future of Iraq is entrusted to the children and young men like Mohammed who were touched by men and women like Major Howell who awake each day in theater and strive to be the very public, beneficent face of America. Acts like this can have repercussions just as long-lasting as when bad things happen. I wish we could see more stories like this.
I’ve always reserved for Michigan State a hostility that is only surpassed by the loathesome, degenerate and perfidious New York Yankees. Maybe it is time to reevaluate that?
Category: Politics
A hostility? For us? Why would you equate us to the “loathsome, degenerate and perfidious New York Yankees”? We ain’t much, but at least we ain’t the NY Yankees.
Major Howell was featured back when he brought Mohammed here, unfortunately, both dropped off the radar of the media, after the initial story. He’s a far better representative of our state than Geoff Fieger or Jack Kervorkian.
And, the Sniper hit a home run with that poster.
I’m not even sure, I just don’t like Tom Izzo.
Michigan State beat UMASS one time and I am harboring a grudge.
Great post, TSO. It still amazes me that the media of the world gives the enemy a pass on the atrocities they daily commit, but drags our military through the mud over every incident even if accidental. It seems to be lost on the media and many civilians that when our troops violate the rules of war they are punished, but when the enemy does they are praised.
TSO, don’t forget the rest of us that spent a fond 2004-2005 in Afghanistan. I loved my job there helping in the Reconstruction effort and interacting with the Local Nationals. CA was the way to go back then. Anyway, I must applaud you for your shared view on the hated Yankee’s. Bean Town is better!
My only comment to this very good post- TSO, Dammit, quit using matthis family name in association with this rapist. He does not deserve to carry the name of his father, and his father has done nothing to earn the scorn associated with his slimy son. We all know Matthis by his first name out here. Thanks for the post.
Nuf Sed
Yep, us evil-kill-em-all-baby eating-bastards do such much harm, while the insurgents are just misunderstood.
December of 2004 was God-hates-you cold in Iraq. One day on patrol we ran into a family where the little girls (maybe 4 or 5 yrs old)had on this cotton dres so thin yo ucould see through it. Without a word being spoken every man on the patrol stripped off damn near every piece of warm clothing we had, then emptied out rucks of any extra we had. That family didn’t have to freeze that winter because of the super evil US soldiers.
I can’t count how many days we shorted ourselves on food to hand out MRE’s to the locals. An extra case or two of water was SOP to hand out over the patrol. AS TSO mentioned almost every Joe has his family send toys and candy for the kids.
I am freaking sick and tired of these chickenshit cowards who didn’t deploy, or suddenly became CO’s on the eve of deployment. I challenge every damn one of them to come to my house and say this crap to my face. I promise it won’t go well for you if you do.
[…] Borrowed from This Aint Hell. Every must read the story of a child named Mohammed […]
Dang it TSO, I was crying like a BIT…, OOPS Baby just looking at Sniper’s poster. Yeah we’re so EVIL my ackin Hemmoroids. I retired in 03 missed out on “A”stan and Iraq but did a tour in Bosnia SFOR9 (01). We had a terp that just had a baby boy, and I called home to my daughter and had her send baby clothes to us. We gave them to the terp, hell he practically broke my back hugging me. We gave stuff all the time to the kids there.
But I thought the Iraq War was a failure?
Dingy Harry said so himself.
LOVE the poster! And LOVE our guys and gals in uniform serving over there! Thank you for all your hard work, your bravery, and your tremendous sacrifice. WE love you all!!
~ Beau
God bless you good people. You define what it is to be a good man, a great American, A warrior for good, for God.
It’s amazing to see love in Afghanistan but not much around the States anymore… but hey love is alive!
Alright enough of the corny shit…
If your in Afghanistan get your friggin helmet on and don’t lose focus of where you are??? 
I saw a picture once of one of our soldiers with his buddies at a camp on top of some big hill in Afghanistan. He was like out in the wide open lifting weights up over his head? Did he forget where he was? He’s got balls….